holiday recipes

We get it. You love pumpkin spice. We love pumpkin spice (try sprinkling some in your morning oatmeal—you're welcome). But fall has us craving so many more flavors, such as aromatic nutmeg, spicy-sweet cinnamon, and the sweetness of maple. Spice up your fall and get out of the pumpkin spice rut! A photo posted by Emilie ' 25 ' Denmark (@emilievelloevhansen) on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:52am PST Cinnamon Extracted from the bark of cinnamon trees, this sweetening spice is great for topping lattés and toast, or throw a few sticks into a pot of wine and warm it on the stove for a cozy fall drink. Cinnamon is naturally sweet and makes a great subtle sweetener for anything you might sprinkle sugar on. Cloves With their warm and aromatic taste, cloves are a fantastic addition to pumpkin pies and gingerbread, but they're also a great addition to chili, bean soups, and stir-fries. Always use full cloves, not the powder, and try pressing them into an orange or a grapefruit, dry, and use as a fragrant decoration called a pomander. Nutmeg The earthy nutty flavor of nutmeg is one of the staple flavors of fall and enhances the flavor of read more

For some of us, turkey isn't the highlight of the Thanksgiving meal. Maybe cooking a whole bird is just too much. Maybe you have cut meat from your diet. Or maybe you. Just. Don't. Like. Turkey. Guess what. You totally have options. Here are five: 1. Pumpkin Mac and Cheese With Apples This recipe is vegetarian but crazy indulgent—which is kind of the point—and packed with every fall flavor we love, like pumpkin puree, pumpkin beer (yes!), maple syrup, and apples. It may sound like too much, but we promise it really works. Get the recipe. 2. Braised Quail With Mushrooms Do you and your guy fight over the wing/thigh/drumstick? Don't get weirded out, but quail is a sophisticated and savory alternative if you're cooking for two this Thanksgiving. This small bird takes about 30 minutes to cook—the smaller the bird, the shorter the cooking time—and the mushroom cream sauce is your secret-weapon crowd pleaser. Get the recipe. 3. Broccoli and Cheddar Pot Pies These adorable pot pies are the perfect main to make if you're hosting a few vegetarians for Thanksgiving. They take 15 minutes to put together—frozen puff pastry is your friend—and 15 more minutes to cook in read more

Holiday parties aren't known for being healthy, so this year we thought we'd swap those old buttery hors d'oeuvres for something more like what our health-conscious guests really eat year-round. The pros at Tone It Up shared eight clean, junk-free recipes that are still festive and impressive--and won't come with a guilt hangover the next day. read more

The Cooking Channel's Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstack are real-life best friends who love cocktails, cracking jokes, and entertaining--our kind of girls. To ensure that you wow your friends this holiday season, they sent over four crowd-pleasing recipes guaranteed to impress even the most jaded holiday party guests. read more

I'll be the first to admit that some of my healthy-eating tendencies go right out the door on and around Christmas (our Christmas morning tradition involves popping a bunch of those giant Pillsbury cinnamon rolls into the oven--total heaven, and I wouldn't give the tradition up for the world). But, of course, not all holiday foods are unhealthy. And, in fact, some of them are also adorable. Like, really ridiculously adorable and festive in the way that you won't even think about the fact they're actually pretty good for you, too! This candy cane milkshake is low-fat and sugar-free (it has cottage cheese and vanilla pudding in it!). Source: dashingdish.com via Lexi on Pinterest Turn low-fat Babybel cheeses into Santa bellies: Source: cutefoodforkids.com via Lexi on Pinterest Bell pepper wreath cups! Source: superhealthykids.com via Lexi on Pinterest Love these pita trees--they're topped with a smear of guacamole and red pepper, with pretzel trunks. Source: livebetteramerica.com via Lexi on Pinterest I can't help it; these banana snowmen with apple caps make me smile. Source: spoonful.com via Lexi on Pinterest Reindeer bento box! Source: thatswhatwesaid.net via Lexi on Pinterest You can healthify this pizza as much as you like (add less cheese, read more

It's not often that I pop into Vitamin G (you see, I'm just not that healthy), but I'm doing so today because this recipe MUST be shared with the world. Earlier this month I had the chance to decorate cookies with the lovely supermodel Karlie Kloss (girl-crush alert!), and to say I fell in love with her gluten-free, vegan confections is the baking understatement of the century. Seriously, these things are life-changing (and this is coming from a person who is very non-vegan and very pro-gluten)! Karlie teamed up with pastry chef extraordinaire Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar to create the "fashionably wholesome" recipe, and I'm SO excited to share it with all of you! Karlie decorating some Kookies Momofuku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi, Karlie, and FEED's Lauren Bush Lauren chatting and decorating Ingredients: 1,134 grams Almond Flour (4.8 cups) 550 grams Gluten-Free Oats (2.3 cups) 6 grams Baking Soda (1.2 tsp) 10 grams Baking Powder (2 tsp) 12 grams Salt (2.4 tsp) 10 grams Cornstarch (2 tsp) 125 grams Slivered Almonds Lightly Toasted (.53 cups) (Ed note: to toast in a jiffy, throw them in a single layer onto a sauté pan and heat at medium temp. just read more

Richard Blais, winner of Bravo's Top Chef All-Stars and chef with the best smirk in the history of ever, has lost about 60 pounds over the last several years, so lately, he's become a lot more health-conscious in his unique brand of mad-genius cookery. And, although so many of us insist being healthy is damn near impossible come holiday time, he's using one of our own favorite healthy swaps to keep down calorie counts: Greek yogurt! Behold, this tasty, healthier creation of a holiday dinner he created with the crew at Dannon, who make Oikos Greek Nonfat Yogurt--here Blais is whipping up the recipe in live-action! (And yes, there are pics of liquid nitrogen making an appearance, too. Natch.) Richard Blais' Roast Holiday Turkey Glazed with Dannon Oikos Greek Nonfat Yogurt & Lemon Curd Yield 4-6 servings Brine 1 turkey (approximately 8-10 lbs) 1 gallon chicken stock 1 gallon ice water 1 1/4 cup sea salt 1/4 cup poultry seasoning 1/2 cup sugar Instructions: 1. Heat the salt, sugar, and spices to dissolve the salt and sugar. 2. Chill this and add the ice water. Submerge your bird in this brine overnight or for at least 6 hours. Remove read more